11:19.7N 60:33.1W

 

Whoosh and we are on the other side of the Atlantic. Well, it did take 12 days. We sailed the 2100 nautical miles at an average of 7.4 knots (nautical miles per hour). We had 2 days of light winds where we motored at night and had the spinnaker up for 1 of the days. The rest of the time we had good solid winds and the odd rain squall in between. The rain squalls always come at night and generally increase the wind, but sometimes also change direction of the wind. This can be quite a nuisance or scary if it is a BIG one.

 

  The chart plotter showing our miles to go and estimated time (note the 8.1 knots we were doing at the time we took the picture.)

 

Before departing, we stocked up on fresh meat and vegetables in Mindelo. The fresh produce market was very helpful here. The bananas comes by truck straight from the farm and none of the fruit and veg have been in the fridge. The fresh food lasted very well – we had meat and fish for 7 days and arrived in Tobago with the odd orange, apple and banana left over.  We supplemented our food with tins and prepacked meals, but we were able to keep that to a minimum. Eggs and ham make a wonderful omelette and the girls baked top quality bread rolls using premix bread mixture (getting a nice warm place for the yeast to rise is of course very easily done).

 

Other than preparing food, we read a lot, the girls gave schooling a good solid go (doing 3 lessons a day) and we all made sure that the boat was clean and any wear and tear was kept under check. When you sail constantly for such a long time there is invariably wear on ropes, sails or canvas covers. The genoa sheets that we thread through a pole (the pole keeps the sail stretched out to the one side) was chafed badly and here in Tobago we cut off the damaged ends and smoothened the pole eye. During the night Pieter and I stood 3 hour watches which can be a really peaceful time alone if you are not too tired. We did catch up on a hour sleep during the day to keep spirits up. The one problem during the day was the heat, especially on the days with light winds. The boat inside can get very hot (30 deg C) and of course the high humidity in the tropics does not help.

 

Celebrating our half way point. Taken on one of the days with light winds (spinnaker just visible on the right)

 

Our landfall in the Caribbean was in Charlotteville, Tobago. This is a small village in the northwest of the island. Although they would like more foreigners, the town is not on the main tourist track. This suited us well and you experience how people in Tobago live. Food is bought at small shacks or mini markets. They seemed to all sell similar goods with some specialising in fruit and veg and others more in dry goods. There are also a lot of little cafes and food shacks once again selling similar produce. Everything is available when you slowly find your way around and get to know the who-does-what of the town. Fresh fish is obviously easy to get. Mostly we bought fish or lobster from the fishermen as they returned to port.

The tuna Pieter did not catch. Bought for $80TT (about £8) from a fisherman.

 

Charlotteville, Tobago

 

Next stop is Grenada. Au revoir!